New Guy...

Hey all...I've spent a good 10 hours looking through all sorts of good information and I appreciate all of you! I live in Miami FL near Florida International University.

I'm new to Mustangs and I traded in a 2013 2.0T Audi A4 towards my 2017 Lightning Blue Ecoboost Mustang about a month ago. I'm very proud as I got an amazing deal and this is my first new car. I don't quite have 1k miles on Misty and I'm already itching to make the car better than she is!

I have plans to upgrade the following:

Grille (honeycomb just doesn't seem right to me)

Intake - leaning towards http://www.roushperformance.com/par...-EcoBoost-I4-Power-Pack-Level-1-w-Dongle.html

Intercooler - clueless as to what has been tried and tested

Exhaust- muffler delete with 3-4" tips to fill the gap (for now)

I may eventually plastidip the wheels black or swap them for the glossy black 19" GT wheels


As for the Roush Power Pac Level 1 (link above) I just noticed today that they new include the dongle so you can flash your own ECU and I was wondering what everyone thought on this...in the video it seems you can do this with a laptop and 10 minutes of time.

Additionally, does anyone know of a good muffler shop in Miami and a general performance shop in South Florida? I've seen the Steeda shop recommended on other forums. I'm also looking to meet up with some of ya if anyone is in South Florida to learn more about these cars. I've noticed there is a Florida section in the forums

Nice to e-meet you all and I look forward to learning more from you!

Sincerely,
Michael
:ford:

Buy an Intercooler first! Ditch the active grip shutters. I got and ATM IC and I couldn’t be happier. In our 99 degree traffic on 95 the very noticibly pulls harder. Feels like you recover 20hp from the heat soaked factory IC

DUNDEM said:

Buy an Intercooler first! Ditch the active grip shutters. I got and ATM IC and I couldn’t be happier. In our 99 degree traffic on 95 the very noticibly pulls harder. Feels like you recover 20hp from the heat soaked factory IC

Click to expand...

That IC looks sexy! Do you recommend any piping be changed out or does it just hook up to the stock assembly?

Welcome to the site , I'm fairly new to the site also, My recommendation is , read, read ,read, I have narrow it down to the following
Intercooler
ECU
Spark plugs
Intake
Down pipe
Exhaust
Tune
I'm still debating on a catch can
Look at the forsale section of the forum, you will find good deals
As of tuner, I'm looking for a local one , if I don't find one I might just go with Adam tune

lazsep said:

Welcome to the site , I'm fairly new to the site also, My recommendation is , read, read ,read, I have narrow it down to the following
Intercooler
ECU
Spark plugs
Intake
Down pipe
Exhaust
Tune
I'm still debating on a catch can
Look at the forsale section of the forum, you will find good deals
As of tuner, I'm looking for a local one , if I don't find one I might just go with Adam tune

Click to expand...

Thanks! Let me know if you hear of a good shop in our area.

[MENTION=32218]Miami EB[/MENTION] Welcome to the club! Glad to see a fellow ecoboost owner in the Miami area. Excited to see your build progress. I live close by and attend FIU so if you ever wanna meetup to discuss cars and what not feel free to shoot me a message and we can exchange numbers. I'm currently running the ford performance tune with the gt350 intake and a mishimoto intercooler on my ecoboost. Definitely try to get an intercooler first if you have the chance, the difference is night and day.

kiszl said:

[MENTION=32218]Miami EB[/MENTION] Welcome to the club! Glad to see a fellow ecoboost owner in the Miami area. Excited to see your build progress. I live close by and attend FIU so if you ever wanna meetup to discuss cars and what not feel free to shoot me a message and we can exchange numbers. I'm currently running the ford performance tune with the gt350 intake and a mishimoto intercooler on my ecoboost. Definitely try to get an intercooler first if you have the chance, the difference is night and day.

Click to expand...

Thanks I'll be ordering the IC soon. Did you install yours or have it installed somewhere? The bumper seems to come off fairly easy so I was going to do it myself unless there is somewhere local that doesn't charge a lot.

G'day mate. I'm pretty new here as well but have been reading on a very regular basis. Welcome to the ecoboost fun

As far as your upgrades go, in Florida I would suggest the first investment would be FMIC. There are generally 2 types, OE replacement or ones that are larger and require Active Grill Shutters to come off. I would suggest the choice depends on your final aspirations for the car, some larger FMIC's can introduce some pressure loss and as such increase turbo lag. Though from my reading you really need to go big. I narrowed down to the CP-E, MAPPerformance Race, MAPPerformance Street and ATM. I liked the look of the ATM the most however ended going for the OE location MAPerformance Street as I have better chance with warranty which at purchase time was an issue.

In terms of their airbox, the AIRAID is probably the best if you need to replace. Alternatively just the AIRAID tube and K&N or similar filter do as much if not more. You will find some "CAI" actually give negative performance as they let alot of the engine heat into the system which defeats the purpose. They look pretty but plenty of dyno comparisons to make your mind up.

Personally I flicked the CAI and got a K&N drop in and used the money saved to buy the Cobb AP v3 which will allow for the E-Tune (as well as access to some OTS tunes)

Oil catch can seems to be popular, the UPR D/Valve seems the best rated but also the most expensive.. i was cheap so went JLT (Still made in USA!)

End of the day it all depends on your wanted outcome, taste, budget etc. I started with just buying a Cobb AP after talking to a mate who owns a WRX and he swore by it.... now I have all these shiny bits ready to go onto my car (Just need access to a hoist)!

Have fun, one thing to remember is always run the best fuel you can with the EB.

Miami EB said:

Thanks I'll be ordering the IC soon. Did you install yours or have it installed somewhere? The bumper seems to come off fairly easy so I was going to do it myself unless there is somewhere local that doesn't charge a lot.

Click to expand...

I got it installed at the Ford dealer in Ft Lauderdale but it was at the same time that they were doing my tune, otherwise I just wouldve done it myself.

Miami EB said:

Hey all...I've spent a good 10 hours looking through all sorts of good information and I appreciate all of you! I live in Miami FL near Florida International University.

I'm new to Mustangs and I traded in a 2013 2.0T Audi A4 towards my 2017 Lightning Blue Ecoboost Mustang about a month ago. I'm very proud as I got an amazing deal and this is my first new car. I don't quite have 1k miles on Misty and I'm already itching to make the car better than she is!

I have plans to upgrade the following:

Grille (honeycomb just doesn't seem right to me)

Intake - leaning towards http://www.roushperformance.com/par...-EcoBoost-I4-Power-Pack-Level-1-w-Dongle.html

Intercooler - clueless as to what has been tried and tested

Exhaust- muffler delete with 3-4" tips to fill the gap (for now)

I may eventually plastidip the wheels black or swap them for the glossy black 19" GT wheels


As for the Roush Power Pac Level 1 (link above) I just noticed today that they new include the dongle so you can flash your own ECU and I was wondering what everyone thought on this...in the video it seems you can do this with a laptop and 10 minutes of time.

Additionally, does anyone know of a good muffler shop in Miami and a general performance shop in South Florida? I've seen the Steeda shop recommended on other forums. I'm also looking to meet up with some of ya if anyone is in South Florida to learn more about these cars. I've noticed there is a Florida section in the forums

Nice to e-meet you all and I look forward to learning more from you!

Sincerely,
Michael
:ford:

Click to expand...

Michael,

Would love to have you come down ... we have a pretty impressive facility with several S550s outfitted with Steeda Performance/Suspension Parts - great for you to come see the Steeda difference!

Best Regards,
TJ

Dont waste your money on a CAI, get a drop in filter from AEM or Green filter and save like 250 bucks.

I've had my EB for over 2 years now heavily modified and here are my suggestions based on my experiences.
Is Warranty important to you?

If yes then I would get the Ford Racing tune (Comes with a GT350 Style intake) and a stock mount inter-cooler (I Used to have the MAP Street and can recommend it)That leaves the shutters intact, most dealerships will not give you a hassle over that if they even notice. A good Catback will free up a bit more power and noise also without generally being a problem for warranty, (Check with your dealer some will even install the ford performance exhaust.) I swear by catch cans and have one installed in every car I own (I won't debate it here) and that's it! Anything more and you risk having a fight on your hands for warranty if something goes wrong.

No Warranty=No problem?
I threw my warranty out the window on day one and you can see my mods in my sig.
CAI, gets you NOTHING but noise on the stock turbo, the stock airbox has been proven to make more power, the Airaid tube is only worth it if you plan on going big turbo later, the stock tube is perfectly sized for the stock turbo, save your money unless you like the noise.

Removing the Crap shutters will help keep underhood temps down and a medium sized IC (MAP Race, ATM...etc are probably your best bets on the stock turbo.) The Huge ones like levels are really meant for bigger turbos but if that's your goal, then you can live with the extra lag and slight loss of torque until you have the time and money to upgrade the turbine.

I highly prefer the Cobb AP and use Tune+ But really any of the tuners on here are good and will determine your tuning device. (or the other way around).

Down pipes will free up top end by allowing the small stock turbo more flow before it chokes up top. Stay catted if you can. if you need to pass smog, it is much easier to just leave that stock.
Finally, this engine just feels so much better and happier with a balance shaft delete. It's a PITA to do but worth it.
Lastly I have a big turbo (VS2+)which means that my peak power is still limited by the block and fuel system, (~400WHP)but it does not begin to nosedive at 5500 rpm, it just pulls hard to red line.
Remember, this route you will almost certainly be denied warranty coverage for the power-train (I already have the money put away for a built engine) But the engine can live a long happy life with good oil, fuel and tuner

My Advice is to go follow the warranty safe path and enjoy the car for 3 years 36k miles safe in the knowledge that ford will cover you if anything goes wrong. Most engine failures are sub 20K miles. Then go all out once the warranty is covered and you know you have a good motor in the car.

I agree with Glenn! If you care about warranty, get the Ford Performance tune (comes with warranty + intake). If waranty isnt an issue, get the cobb accessport with tune+ tune. That seems to be the popular choice. Livernois is also a good shout they squeeze lots of reliable power out of the car. If only they used the accessport:(

With the FP tune, u cant really do other power adders except the intake, catback exhaust, and intercooler. If you want a downpipe, the car needs to be re-tuned. Unfortunately, ford performance does not have such a tune, so you need another platform such as cobb.

Regardless which route you go, both setups need an intercooler, hell even the stock tune benefits greatly from one. If you want a stage 1 (stock fitment) IC, then the MAP street is a good choice. I have it and its 100x better than stock, you immediately feel the difference even without tuning for it. The "best" stage 1 is probably CPE because it is the largest stage 1 available. I personally wanted an IC where I did not have to remove the bumper to install. There probably isnt much if any real world difference between the two, just on paper.
If you want to go bigger than stage 1, Levels is usually the go to. ATM is a little better based on some testing buried deep in the FP procal tune thread. But ATM is also considerably more expensive.

My setup is FP tune, mishimoto intake (had it before I got the FP intake, it sounds way better), borla axelback exhaust + resonator delete, MAP street intercooler. Welcome!

The tune and IC is going to be the biggest power gainers for you. Ford Performance tune is the way to go. Look more carefully at the Roush tune - those are not peak numbers but the difference between stock tune numbers at certain RPMS. FP offers over 100HP+ after 5800RPM where the stock tune usually nose dives and the torque is smoothed out and a lot punchier until 4500RPM. You also don't have to pay extra for the warranty.

Everything else you mentioned is more about aesthetics and is a personal choice. Personally, I would never drive a car without mufflers.

1 find a good mechanic if can't do yourself

2 read reviews of the tune you want..

3 intercooler first , and I did it backwards

4 spark plugs

5 drive the heck out of it and enjoy it.

:ford: